Giving Partner Challenge raises nearly $3 million

Wednesday

Mar 6, 2013 at 11:26 PM

Nonprofit benefit rides social media across state and national lines to a huge second year

Carrie Seidman

Sarasota's second annual Giving Partner Challenge, a 36-hour online philanthropy marathon for 285 area nonprofits, broke its own record with more than $2.78 million raised by the time it ended at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

But even more significant may be the 65 percent increase in donors.

With 17,626 donations from 50 states and 24 countries, up from 10,705 last year, the event represents a growing trend in fundraising and donor cultivation: using the Internet and social media to solicit smaller gifts from a much wider audience.

You had to look no farther than the top-earning organization, which brought in $90,102, to find an example.

Many people in the four-county area included in the event — Sarasota, Manatee, Charlotte and DeSoto — had never heard of the Phelan McDermid Syndrome Foundation. Yet despite being one of the smaller participants, the Venice-based group, which supports families of those with a little-known chromosomal condition, ended up taking first place.

Its 678 donations came from 14 countries and at least 30 states, and will likely earn the group an extra $20,000 prize for the most unique donors once final tabulations are made by the Community Foundation of Sarasota, which administers The Giving Partner website and the fundraiser.

The charity's executive director, Barbara Cruz — she wore a “PMS, it's not what you think” T-shirt at the after-party — said her group had harnessed a global network of family members and caregivers, who in turn reached out to others through social media.

“We have done so well raising money,” said an elated Cruz. “But more important, we've raised awareness, and that's really the name of the game.”

The board chairwoman of PMS, Susan Lomas, whose son has the syndrome, said she spent the day Wednesday fielding calls and emails from people from around the world — supporters included a mother in Canada who drove to every wireless site she could find to make donations, and a teacher in Kentucky who donated from all 47 of her school's computers.

“They even wanted to donate from Vietnam, but no one had a credit card they could use,” Lomas said. “Our stories are from all over. The connections were made by people telling people telling people.”

Cruz, a Venice native, said she and her staff of two have been working a marketing campaign since January.

But in the end, it was social media all the way.

“We had seven different Facebook pages actively working, and we leveraged our Facebook rock stars, through their personal pages,” she said.

Tabulation of the final results, which will determine the recipients of $215,000 in incentive prizes, may take several days, said Susie Bowie, director of The Giving Partner.

She agreed that social media had played a significant role in the increase in donations this year. “We're seeing social media kind of take over,” she said. “There were donors who gave to organizations they'd never even heard of when this started.”

In the waning hours of the challenge, when contributions had come from every state but Alaska, even Bowie reached out via Facebook. “We put out a Facebook call and two people called friends who lived there and got them to donate,” she said.

Though she said online donations still represent a small percentage of total gifts, Bowie believes an event like the challenge introduces a significant number of new donors to the concept of giving. That was the whole idea behind establishing The Giving Partner, which provides comprehensive information on area nonprofits and a user-friendly donor portal.

“It looks like we got a lot more gifts that were smaller this year,” she said. “People can make a contribution of $25 and still feel like they're part of a community. And who doesn't want to feel like part of a community?”

Debra Jacobs, president and CEO of the Patterson Foundation, which contributed $430,000 in matching funds, agreed. “This is now truly a donor cultivation tool,” she said. “Anybody can be a philanthropist to any cause that touches their heart.”

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